MEDICAL PRACTICE. 



187 



cases for which he could not prescribe with any 

 satisfaction. Treatment which might be proper at 

 the moment might not answer a few days afterward, 

 and the greatest annoyance was that, if our travel- 

 ling chest could not furnish the . medicine, the pre- 

 scription had to wait an opportunity of being sent 

 to Merida ; but when the medicine arrived, the case 

 might have altered so much that this medicine had 

 become altogether improper for it. It is gratifying 

 to know that, in general, his practice gave satisfac- 

 tion, yet, at the same time, it must be admitted that 

 there were complaints. The terms could not well 

 have been made easier, but the ground of dissatisfac- 

 tion was, that he did not always furnish medicine as 

 well as advice. I do not mention this reproachfully, 

 however ; throughout the country he had a fair 

 share of patronage, and the run reached its climax 

 at Iturbide. Unluckily, the day on which the in- 

 habitants resolved to take him up in earnest it rain- 

 ed, and we were kept nearly all the time within 

 doors, and there were so many applications from 

 men, women, and children, many of whom came 

 with Don Juan's recommendation, that the doctor 

 was seriously annoyed. Every latent disease was 

 brought out, and he could even have found business 

 in prescribing for cases that might possibly occur, as 

 well as for those already existing. 



The next morning Mr. Catherwood made an ef- 

 fort to visit the ruins. Our numerous escort of the 

 former occasion were all missing, and, except an In- 



